The beginning of the Julie Torbett era in Chattanooga is here. The first-year Mocs head coach and director of volleyball and her squad will welcome the Kennesaw State Owls to Maclellan Gym on Wednesday night for the team’s only exhibition of the season.
Admission is free and the match will begin at 6:30 p.m.
This is season will be Torbett’s 29th year as the head coach of an NCAA Volleyball program. She holds an 468-404 overall record with 26 seasons at Division I schools.
Among those programs she coached 17 seasons at UNC Asheville with a 304-257 record and two conference titles. Her 11 other seasons have been at East Carolina (7), Winthrop (2) and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) (2).
Since being hired on Jan. 4, Torbett has brought in five transfers and one freshman. She is reuniting with Natalie Tyson and Sydney Hall after the duo played for her at East Carolina. She also welcomed Halle Olson from FAU and Nailah Jones from Chicago State. The final transfer is returning home to play in the Scenic City. Elaine Redman was the starting setter for Toledo last year and comes to Chattanooga with three years of eligibility remaining. The lone freshman on the quad is Cassidy Couch who made her way to UTC from Murfreesboro.
The team is returning its leader in digs, assists and blocks from last year. Sophia Bossong will join Redman at the setter position, she led the squad with 974 assists last season. In the back row, Paige Gallentine accounted for 48% of the team’s digs with 585. Lastly, Marcelle Baez-Carlo paced the 2021 squad with 112 blocks. Her 1.30 blocks per set were the second-most by a Moc in program history. Overall, the team is returning 43% of its kills, 88% of assists, 57% of aces, 62% of digs, 56% of blocks and 47% of its total points from last season.
The 2022 Preseason Atlantic Sun Volleyball Coaches poll was released last week and Kennesaw State was picked to finish third. Last season, the Owls used a 12-match win streak to post their fourth 20-win season in the last five years. The team returns five starters from last year’s squad. Senior Emma Schurfranz was named Preseason All-ASUN after posting 3.67 kills per set last season.
Next weekend, the Blue and Gold will officially start the 2022 campaign at the Classic City Clash in Athens, Ga. The tournament is hosted by the University of Georgia and the Mocs will face the Bulldogs, Santa Clara and Troy.
Next Tuesday, the team will host its Blue-Gold Scrimmage at 6 p.m. in Maclellan Gym.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Athletics Department, in partnership with From Now On, has launched a free app that gives fans easy access to the Mocs information they want most. The 'Go Mocs' app presented by FirstBank provides users with live stats, game day information, ticket purchasing, and exclusive Mocs content all in one place. It also includes push notifications, so fans are always the first to know score updates, breaking news and promotional offers.